Week 5, Transfer 9.
Sorry. Mission life is lived six weeks at a time. Hah! The end of my second transfer in Bergamo is looming. It's already been almost three months. The clock runs on a different schedule in the mission. Speaking of clocks, Italian DST is this weekend. Thankfully, we were fore-warned this time. Last Spring, no one bothered telling us and we strolled into church an hour late. The members about had a heart attack. Missionaries late to church?? They must have gotten struck by lightning or something.
I apologize if I make any spelling mistakes. I feel like my capacity to use English is slowly diminishing... I have to think so much harder to spell things than I used to. Maybe I'm just getting old. Twenty years is almost over the hill right?
One of the computers at the church isn't working today for some reason, so we had to go to an internet point. I feel like I'm in Pesaro again in the back room of that sketchy Western Union shack.
We gained a great new investigator yesterday. Elders from another ward found this man on the street last week and referred him to us. He is from Nigeria and he has been here since 1997. He also speaks fluent Italian! He is very humble and very faithful. He was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, converted to being a Pentecostal, and then when he moved to Italy he stopped attending church because he believes that they are all run by men instead of God. Obviously that gave us a huge kick-start right into the Restoration. He told us during the lesson that for most of his time in Italy he was content with his life. He had a nice house, a nice car, expensive clothes, etc. A few years ago he lost it all and since then he's been able to realize that he's missing something and he came to realize that he won't be taking any of those things with him. Since then he's been looking for God. As it happens, he has a friend that is a new member in Bergamo 1 who has been encouraging him for a while to check out the Church. When he met the Anziani on the street a few days ago, he felt the Spirit tell him that this was his time. We believe that he will be a great strength to this branch and we are so happy to see his testimony grow.
Also, as a funny side note, our investigator Frank asked us on Sunday if he could see the baptismal font. He's been thinking about baptism for a while. For all intents and purposes, he's already a member anyway. We opened up the font for him and a bunch of dust bunnies flew out. There was a member standing nearby who laughed and said "it's been a while since we've baptized." Frank got a kick out of it though. It hasn't been that long, it just looked worse than it is. That font should be filled here pretty soon. There are several people in Bergamo who are overjoyed to be baptized, they're just waiting for the right time.
Of course, as a missionary, I feel like it's always the right time, but it's always up to them. I have a favorite quote that says "It is contrary to the economy of heaven for the Lord to do for us that which we can do for ourselves." The choice is always ours, but it's up to us to align ourselves with God's will. That's the real test of this life. We do that through repenting of our sins and mistakes and doing all we can to make our will become the Lord's will. He is perfect and unchanging, so we must be willing to change ourselves and make our lives more in harmony with what He knows is best. After all, He always knows what's best.
I wish you all a pleasant week! I hope life is going well. It is always a pleasure to hear from all of you wonderful people.
I wish you a sack of love, Anziano Simcox
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